Kyle Bustin of Berwick is making his mark on the St. John’s campus of Newfoundland’s Memorial University.

The 2011 bachelor of fine arts graduate recently finished a graffiti-style mural in the tunnel connecting the science and music buildings. Commissioned by the two academic units, Bustin met with students from both faculties to get their ideas.

“We both thought it was a great way to bring our students together,” School of Music dean Ellen Waterman said. “The swirling colours and images of Kyle’s mural are a pretty good representation of the creativity and innovation that both music and science students bring to their work at Memorial.

“It’s a happy meeting of music and science through visual art,” Waterman added.

Blending the two disciplines together was not as difficult as one might think, Bustin told Memorial’s today.mun.ca publication.

“The mural starts with a staff on one end, the music side, and ends with a DNA strand on the other. Along the way there are musical instruments, notes and other things to represent music and a beaker, brain neurons and other references to science,” Bustin said. In the middle the two come together in sound waves – which is where I think music and science meet.”

Bustin said he liked taking a graffiti-style approach to this project because the technique creates long continuous lines that help link the whole piece together. He says he wanted it to transition seamlessly from one end to the other.

“There’s no place where science stops and music begins,” noted the St. John’s resident

It took Bustin just over two weeks of six-hour days to complete the massive mural, which encompasses the entire length of the corridor and measures approximately 12 feet at its highest point and is roughly 150 feet long.

Currently working as artist in residence at St. John’s cultural facility, The Rooms, which houses the provincial art gallery and archives, Bustin will be having a show of his work starting in September. He has previously painted murals at the Janeway Children’s Hospital in St. John’s.